“I did not do it to ‘normalize’ him or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff,” says Jimmy Fallon …

It was, it turned out, the biggest mistake of Fallon’s career. He almost immediately began taking incoming fire on social media from people who felt that Trump was an existential threat to America whom Fallon had ‘normalized’ for people who were still on the fence about him. “It just got bigger and out of control,” Fallon recalls, speaking in his office at 30 Rock. Then came the shots from Fallon’s colleagues. “I saw other comedians from other shows making fun of me on Twitter and I go, ‘Okay, now I’m just gonna get off,'” he says. “They know the show. I’m just doing five hours a week. I get in at 10 in the morning, I work ’til seven at night and I’m just trying to make a funny show. [Addressing them:] ‘You know the grind and you know me. Of all the people in the world, I’m one of the good people — I mean, really. You don’t even know what you’re talking about if you say that I’m evil or whatever.’ But people just jump on the train, and some people don’t even want to hear anything else. They’re like, ‘No, you did that!’ You go, ‘Well, just calm down and just look at the whole thing and actually see my body of work.'”

“It was definitely a down time,” Fallon somberly says of the period after Trump’s last appearance on his show. “And it’s tough for morale. There’s 300 people that work here, and so when people are talking that bad about you and ganging up on you, in a really gang-mentality…” Choking up, he continues, “You go, ‘Alright, we get it. I heard you. You made me feel bad. So now what? Are you happy? I’m depressed. Do you want to push me more? What do you want me to do? You want me to kill myself? What would make you happy? Get over it.’” Fallon adds, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to make anyone angry — I never do and I never will. It’s all in the fun of the show. I made a mistake. I’m sorry if I made anyone mad. And, looking back, I would do it differently.”

You’ll be surprised to learn that President Petty has some feelings about this:

.@jimmyfallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous “hair show” with me (where he seriously messed up my hair), & that he would have now done it differently because it is said to have “humanized” me-he is taking heat. He called & said “monster ratings.” Be a man Jimmy!

Well played, Jimmy. I hesitated even mentioning this non-story as it is obvious culture war distraction on the part of the Inflamer-in-Chief, but kudos to Fallon for using the opportunity to remind us of what we should be paying attention to: the thousands of children who have been torn from their parents by Trump’s racist administration.

Speaking of racists, Brian Fucking Kilmeade over here:

.@kilmeade on children who have been split from their parents as a result of Trump administration policy: "Like it or not, these are not our kids. Show them compassion, but it's not like he's doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country." pic.twitter.com/s24zwyDfNc

“I want to point something out to our colleagues over at Fox & Friends. I don’t think there’s anyone who is saying a life of a child in Idaho or Iowa means less than someone on the other side of the border. And if you are so worried about how every American child is treated, think about the money that is being blown, spent, flushed down a toilet for this political theater. If you want to address income inequality, take the tens of millions of dollars going to this self-created crisis, and put it toward income inequality, put WI-FI in rural areas, workforce development programs, improving the education system.

This is noise and nonsense, and a crisis created by the president. So please, with your propaganda, that anyone is putting the life of a migrant child ahead of the life of an American child is simply nonsense. It’s ignorant. It’s stupid. It’s wrong.”

I work (happily) for Turner, and I find it appalling and shameful that @CNN is still having Corey Lewandowski on their air after his repulsive insult towards disabled children. No mealy-mouthed explanation makes it okay. Wrong is wrong.

Michael Cohen denies that he gave Tom Arnold any material for his show, but I choose to believe he is lying.

Appreciate @TomArnold kind words about me as a great father, husband and friend. This was a chance, public encounter in the hotel lobby where he asked for a selfie. Not spending the weekend together, did not discuss being on his show nor did we discuss @POTUS. #done#ridiculous

“I’m a lot of things. I’m a loudmouth and all that stuff, but I’m not stupid, for God’s sake, and I never would have wittingly called any black person … say they are a monkey. I never would do that! And I didn’t do that. And if people think that I did that it just kills me. I didn’t do that, although they think I did. And if they do think that I am so sorry that I — ya know, it was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry but I don’t think that, I never would do that.”

Meanwhile, Chloe Dykstra has thanked people for their support, while calling out the people who are defending Hardwick: “These behaviors are insidious and often hard to spot – we make excuses for them and, bit by bit, we can lose ourselves entirely.”